Sunday 13 a rainey Day a frenchman arrive, Soon after Hall from St. Louis with Letters from Capt Lewis I Send out to enquire for Rumsey &

[Clark]

River a Dubois
opposit the mouth of the Missourie RiverSunday May the 13th 1804—[1]

I despatched an express this morning to Capt Lewis at St. Louis, all our provisions goods and equipage on Board of a Boat of 22 oars, [NB: Party] a large Perogue of 7 oares [NB: in which 8 French] a Second Perogue of 6 oars, [NB: Soldiers][2] Complete with Sails &c. &c. men Compe. with Powder Cartragies and 100 Balls each, all in health and readiness to Set out. Boats and every thing Complete, with the necessary Stores of provisions & such articles of merchendize as we thought ourselves autherised to precure—tho' not as much as I think necssy for the multitud of Inds. tho which we must pass on our road across the Continent &. &.

1. This is the first dated entry in Clark's notebook journal Codex A. (Return to text.)

2. The Detachment Orders of May 26, 1804 (see below), indicate substantially the same arrangement of men in the boats, although one or two shifts may have taken place. As Biddle's interlineations indicate, the crew of the keelboat consisted primarily of those intended at the time for the permanent party to the Pacific, in the squads of Sergeants Floyd, Ordway, and Pryor. The larger pirogue, manned by Patroon (foreman) Baptiste Deschamps and seven of his hired French boatmen, is later referred to as the red pirogue. The smaller, or white, pirogue carried Corporal Warfington and his squad of five soldiers, who were then intended to return from somewhere up the Missouri before winter. (Return to text.)

3. This latitude and longitude is at the bottom of a page in Codex A; the May 13 entry, apparently written later, had to be interlined with it. The position is probably that of the River Dubois camp, but if so the Captains have placed it too far east. The approximate location is just west of 90° W.
(Return to text.)